


Introduction

by Darkspectre212



Series: The Introduction to the Dark Spectre Series [1]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types
Genre: Asari - Freeform, Biotics (Mass Effect), Blood Pack - Freeform, Blue Suns, Cerberus - Freeform, Collector base, Collectors, Dark Spectre, Earth, Geth, Humans, Mass Effect fanfiction, Omega 4 relay, Quarians, Reapers, The Reaper War, Turians, eclipse - Freeform, omega - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-25 04:27:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14370891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkspectre212/pseuds/Darkspectre212
Summary: The Rise of John and Jane ShepardThe Saren Arterius Incident





	1. Chapter 1

Born to naval officers in the Alliance, John and Jane both joined the military at the same time and took similar courses.

While John was an impressive biotic and solider, Jane was the strategic thinker and very charismatic.

John and fifty marines were on Akuze when they were attacked by a cluster thresher maws, killing all of the marines save for John who suffered serious injuries.

Meanwhile, Jane was on Elysium during the Skyllian Blitz and fought off the Batarians after rallying the civilians to rise up and fight for what was theirs.

Both rose quickly in the ranks and then it was Jane who was promoted to Commander, while John seemed unable to rise above Lt. Commander.

Both were on the SSV Normandy when the Saren Incident began. While Jane was the one that would activate the Prothean beacon, John was helping the recently saved Sgt Ashley Williams gather what few survivors there were from the Geth massacre.

After they returned to the Citadel and aquired proof that the Spectre called Saren was a traitor, Jane was given the rank of Spectre and ordered to take Saren down. John was annoyed that he was not given the title since he had seen more combat and down more in the field than his sister. It was around this time that Jane started to sow her seeds of influence among the humans on the Citadel.

They learned of Dr. Liara T’soni’s location and made a move to capture her, for she was the daughter of Matariach Benzaiza, who was working with Saren. Instead of finding some weak scared doctor, they found a ruthless and aggressive asari ripping geth apart with her biotics. The siblings watched as Liara held the Krogan battlemaster leading the Geth in the air and emptied his own shotgun in his face. Liara agreed to come with them to stop her mother.

The Alliance made several requests of the Shepards and the Normandy, ranging from disabling a rogue combat VI on the Moon to dealing with cults and other minor missions. They complied with all of these requests but the Alliance Command kept hailing Jane as the hero, while her brother was still not acknowledged.

Then came the mission to Noveria, they both fought the geth alongside Ashley Williams and Liara and made it all the way to Peak 15. There they found Lady Benezia and the last Rachni Queen along with a small army of mercs and Geth. The team killed all of the Geth and mercs and were able to get the information from Benezia before John Shepard executed her before she turned on them. Meanwhile Jane Shepard activated the tanks full of acid above the Queen and ended the threat of the Rachni from returning.

On Ferros…Jane Shepard lost her patience with the colonists and killed several of them before they were suddenly attacked by strange humanoid like creatures. The other colonists also attacked the Shepard’s team, they were gunned down along with the creatures. The colony leader, a man named Fi Dan explained what happened but it caused him great pain before he shot himself. The Shepards then faced the Thorian creature under the colony, after facing more creatures that were under its control, John was able to destroy its supports and the creature fell to its death.

The asari, Shiala was then freed from her organic prison on a wall near were the creature used to be. She explained more information on Saren and his plans from what she knew and in turn she was spared an execution at the hands of the siblings. She was allowed to leave the doomed colony and in the end she made her way to Omega.

The Citadel Council then informed the Shepards about the planet Virmire and that Saren had been sighted there. They arrive on the planet, while John is commanding the Normandy, Jane takes Garrus and Tali with her in the Mako to disable the outer defense grid. Once the outer defenses were down, Jane met with the STG team that was on the ground already.

It was during this conversation between the Salarian Captain and Jane Shepard that Saren’s plan came into focus. He was breeding an army of Krogan for conquest of the galaxy. Upon hearing this revelation, Wrex and John walked over and Wrex added his weight to the decision on what to do with the facility. Tensions came to a head when both John and the Salarians agreed the complex had to be destroyed, while Wrex and Jane thought capturing the place would a better solution.

Wrex pulled his shotgun and aimed it at John’s head, but Jane was able to talk him down. She explained that the Krogan would not be true Krogan and just mindless brutes used for cannon fodder. Wrex respected Jane and stood down from killing her brother. John and Jane both talked with the Salarian Captain and it was agreed that Kadian Aleko would oversee the bomb deployment.

John, Ashley and Tali accompanied the Salarian teams, while Jane took Garrus and Wrex with her to distract Saren’s forces. While Jane did mostly helped the Salarians by causing damage to their defenses, she did however re-routed the alarms and this sent troops after the main force. It was her way of punishing her brother for there had been a secondary goal to taking over the complex, but she buried that idea and had Garrus download all files from the main computer. Jane encountered the Prothean beacon and then was the first human to encounter Sovereign, a Reaper.

Under fire and somewhat outnumbered, John and his group were killing krogans, husks and geth in mass but several Salarians lost their lives. John radioed Jane that they needed help and Jane did come to their aid, but then Kaidan radioed. The squad and him were pinned down and unable to hold, Jane ordered Joker to pick them up first. Jane was annoyed with Kaidan for he had not only rejected her advances but she had not been agreeing with most of her decisions. With the primary group collected, John ordered Joker to pull Kaidan’s team out and he complied with the order, despite Jane yelling at them to leave.

Kaidan was saved but the rest of his squad had been killed by the geth. The bomb detonated and annihilated the whole complex and a good part of the surrounding region in nuclear fire. With the mission completed, Jane ordered the Normandy back to the Citadel. While they were in route, the sibling had a fight in mess hall. Ashley did notice that John didn’t use his biotics against his sister. Both of them fought and tired out and then stayed away from each other till they reached the Citadel.

With the Conduit located and located on the planet Ilos, Jane Shepard convinced the human ambassador of the Reaper threat. But this turned out to be a ruse, for once the Normandy docked and the crew left, C-Sec locked down the ship with the docking clamps. The ambassador also had the main computer locked via his personal terminal in the embassy. Jane tried to plead her case to the Council but to no avail, but not everyone agreed with the ambassador’s call. Captain David Anderson joined with the siblings and they made a plan to free the Normandy, but it would be on the same level of treason.

The Normandy was freed after Anderson delivered a right hook to Ambassador Udina’s face and accessed his personal terminal. Blasting away from the Citadel at full power, the Normandy used the local mass relay and made for the Mu relay.

While the others were busying preparing the ship for all out combat, Ashley approached John with a small offer…which led to moaning and groaning from the inside of the Mako and a trail of clothing from the armory to the APC. Liara spent a long and passionate time with Jane and the two were content with each others skills in bed. Upon reaching Ilos, the crew found out that Saren was already on site with a task force of geth ships in orbit.

Jane gave orders to Joker that once the Mako was on the surface, he was to take the Normandy to Arcturus station where the 5th Fleet was stationed.

Joker then took the ship in and with insane flying was able to deliver the Mako onto the Ilos surface without being blasted out of the sky, or killing the group in the Mako. When the Normandy made the jump to FTL to make it back to the Mu relay, John cursed his sister for not telling him what she was going to do, not to mention not taking him with her. Garrus and Wrex were again taken for her team and he suspected he knew why.

Saren was able to make it to the Citadel and jammed communications from the massive station, while the fleets protecting it came under attack from Sovereign and a fleet of geth ships. Jane and her team battled their way to the Conduit and were able to make it on board the Citadel. Saren was able to close the arms of the mighty Citadel but Sovereign had been able to get inside before it was sealed. Jane and Saren fought in a gun battle that was brutal and at times up close and personal. It ended with Saren falling from his platform and into a grotto below the Council chamber and impaled by a large shard of glass.

Admiral Hackett and John Shepard brought the entire 5th Fleet to the Citadel and opened fire on the geth ships, losing only a few in the opening battle and saving the Destiny Ascension

But Sovereign was not done with his ‘servant’ and using its power resurrected Saren but at the same time it mutated him, making him even more dangerous. But Jane Shepard and her team were victorious after a short fight with the mutated Saren, which caused a feedback in Sovereign and left him defenseless. Alliance ships and the surviving Citadel fleet, including the Destiny Ascension fired all their weapons and destroyed the ancient Reaper. However, a fragment of Sovereign flew into the citadel tower and nearly killed Jane and her team, but they survived.

With humanity showing itself ready, The Citadel Council invited humans to join the Council. Jane Shepard being the hero of the battle and the first human Spectre had some pull, she decided that Ambassador Uidna would be the best choice since he was familiar with those on the Council and would place Earth first.

After repairs, the SSV Normandy was sent out to deal with ‘rogue’ geth holdouts and conclaves, but John Shepard and a few others didn’t stay with the Normandy. John instead returned to Earth along with Ashley Williams, Dr. Karin Chakwas and several other marines. Tali’Zorah returned to the Migrant fleet along with the geth intel recovered from a geth enclave. Wrex returned to Tuchanka to reform the Krogan clans after a long conversation with Jane Shepard.

One month after the Battle of the Citadel

Jane Shepard and the Normandy were last located patrolling the Omega Nebula for the geth, near the planet Alchera. Automated distress beacon was activated, SSV Normandy destroyed by unknown vessel, 21 causalities this included Commander Jane Shepard.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Return of Jane Shepard  
> The Collector Incident  
> Start of the Reaper War

One Month following battle of the Citadel

Jane Shepard and the Normandy were last located patrolling the Omega Nebula for the geth, near the planet Alchera. An automated distress beacon was activated and the SSV Normandy destroyed by an unknown vessel. The incident resulted in significant casualties, Commander Jane Shepard among them.

Around the time of the Normandy’s destruction, Commander John Shepard had just completed his N7 Fury advanced combat biotic training in Rio de Janerio, Brazil. Commandeering the Alliance heavy combat frigate, SSV Kursk, he made for Alchera. Upon arrival in the system Shepard coordinated with the onsite search teams, their sweep leading to the recovery of several escape pods, including that of Doctor Liara T’Soni. A sizable amount of debris was recovered in orbit, along with numerous deceased crew who were returned to Earth for burial.

In the month that followed, John went on a rampage through the sector, tearing geth conclaves to pieces, annihilating pirate bases and interrogating any survivors for information. On several occasions he encountered Cerberus operatives and combat teams, never once leaving any survivors. Finally, John received a heavily encrypted personal message from someone by the name of Lawson. While the content of the message remains unclear, John ceased any further attacks on Cerberus operations.

In the absence of Jane, and for his actions both during the Saren Incident and current operations, John was granted the title of Spectre. Ashley was impressed with his new status and made sure he knew it, resulting in an intense night in John’s apartment. Both were unsure of how to further their relationship, so it was mostly one of beneficial gains. But secretly both John and Ashley hoped for something more, but neither of them knew how to proceed. Following a promotion, Ashley found herself undertaking new assignments that took her away from John, but her feelings didn’t change.

The SSV Kursk was refitted with newer tech and weapons and given to Spectre John Shepard as his personal ship. John would retain full control over the ship and its crew, but in the event of a wider war, Alliance command had the authority to commandeer it. Larger and more heavily armed and armored than the Normandy, the Kursk mostly dealt with pirate groups and the gangs from Omega. When reports of colonies in the Terminus systems going dark without reason or warning surfaced, the Kursk and other ships were dispatched to the border of Alliance space, increasing patrols and initiating surveillance into the Terminus in an effort to determine the cause.

In 2185, a specialized Cerberus frigate was spotted during one of these surveillance operations. Alliance Intelligence made a disturbing discovery about the frigate; it bore the name Normandy on its hull. Garrus Vakarian was identified when a previously unheard of collaboration between the three major gangs on Omega, the Blue Suns, Blood Pack and Eclipse were rumored to be co-ordinating against a group of individual by the name of Archangel. More troubling was that a woman with red shoulder length hair was spotted on Omega, both in Afterlife and in security footage of the lower levels. Unfortunately, due to poor maintenance the footage was poor and degraded, making a facial identification impossible…but John Shepard had a strange feeling in his gut.

Purchasing a space yacht via his black market connections, John oversaw the modifications necessary to create a semi-stealthy combat vessel. Recruiting a private crew, he took the ship into the Terminus systems to search for this mysterious ghost Normandy and its commander. The SSV Kursk remained on standby in Alliance space, ready to respond to his call if required.

Months of sightings had John traversing the Terminus with the hope of catching up, but then came the Horizon incident. John had last heard from Ashley on Horizon, but she hadn’t disclosed her reason for being there. While most of the colony had been taken prior to his arrival, two mysteries were answered. Although the prime suspect behind the abductions weren’t Cerberus, the actual perpetrators were an alien race known only as the Collectors. Ashley was one of the few survivors and she told John what he suspected; his sister was alive but working for Cerberus.

Ashley told John that something was wrong with Jane. Her face was heavily scarred, while her eyes glowed with a mechanical and malevolent red. That Jane had also used biotic powers, something she never had before her death, was another curious and disturbing piece of information. Garrus had apparently been with her as well, along with a woman in tight leather bearing the insignia of Cerberus.

John took Ashley to the Citadel where she privately made a report directly to Captain Anderson before taking her to Earth. With the backing of John, Ashley entered N7 training and passed with flying colors. She was even invited to the Interplanetary Combative Academy, where she trained and became a special N7 soldier class, the Destroyer. 

Alliance Command went on full alert when the Alpha Relay destroyed the Bahak system, killing over 300,000 batarians. Given that the relay was hit by an asteroid, it was initially unclear if the disaster was an accident or deliberate. John soon after received a coded message from Admiral Hackett, confirming Jane Shepard had destroyed the relay intentionally. No warning was sent from the asteroid and no remorse shown for her actions.

Several more colonies were lost to the Collectors before something caused their ships to flee into dark space. Days after this unexplained event, the Normandy returned to Earth. Upon her arrival, Jane Shepard was greeted not by a crowd of fans but a group of military police.

John refused to meet with her for the first four months of house arrest but after speaking with Anderson was granted a few hours. The meeting between the two siblings, the first in over two years, was initially hostile and tense, best summarized as the confrontation of two apex predators. They moved at the same time and hugged, tightly and the moment of tension passed.

Jane explained what she was doing for Cerberus and by extension humanity. Gathering a team and then combating the Collectors which led them to the Collector base in the Galactic Core. John was horrified by most of what she had done, but found a measure of understanding when she described the human/Reaper hybrid that the Collectors were growing. But upon revealing that she gave the base to Cerberus, John reached his limit. They had both seen what Cerberus had done in the past, the grotesque experiments and the lives lost to them and their research. He left her in her cell under the guard of a good marine lieutenant by the name of James Vega. That would be the last time they spoke before the invasion.

After the end of the mission on the Collector base:

Miranda leaves Cerberus and becomes a free agent but mostly is in hiding from Cerberus forces

Jacob Taylor leaves Cerberus and rejoins the Alliance, is accepted in to Special Forces

Mordin Solus takes Maleon’s data and returns to Sur’Kesh

Garrus returns to Palaven and tries to prepare the Turians for the coming of the Reapers

Thane Krios slips away and makes for the Citadel

Urdnot Grunt returns to Tuchunka

Jack accepts an offer to teach at Grissom Academy

Tali returned to the Migrant fleet, as the Quarian’s prepare for the war with the Geth

Legion left before the ship returned to Earth

Zaeed leaves the Normandy and meets with John Shepard on Earth before heading back out to the Terminus systems

Kasumi goes into hiding for a short period of time, the greybox is still with her

 

Six months after the destruction of the Alpha Relay…the Reapers invade Earth…

To be continued


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Reaper War

Six months after the events of destruction of the Alpha Mass Relay…the Reapers invade the galaxy.

The Reapers invade, annihilating the Batarian held systems and savagely making their way straight to Earth and Palaven.

Commander Jane Shepard is recovered by the Alliance heavy frigate SSV Normandy (SR-2) and heads for Mars on orders from Admiral Hackett, accompanied by Major Kaidan Alenko and Lt. James Vega goes with her.

Commander John Shepard and Ashley Williams take the SSV Kursk and make for the Citadel. John pleas for Citadel support.

Major Alenko is wounded on Mars. Meanwhile Jane and Liara T’soni recover plans for a Prothean device massive in size and scope. They immediately take the plans to the Citadel.

While Alenko is sent to the hospital on the Citadel, both Shepards try to get support for Earth. The Council however is concerned about their borders. Surprisingly, Earth Councilor Udina backs both Shepards, giving John a strange vibe.

Jane Shepard is reinstated into the Spectres and assigned the mission to rescue the Turian Primarch  
John is sent out to deal with two tasks: investigate Cerberus activities and meet Aria T’loak concerning an offer.

Jane regroups with Garrus during her mission to locate and secure the Turian Primarch, but soon learns of the Primarch’s death. The successive Primarch needs to be extracted from the moon orbiting Palaven. Once this was accomplished, Jane and the newly installed Primarch Victus attend a meeting between Krogan Leader Urdnot Wrex and the Salarian Dalatrass. The meeting becomes intense at the revelation of Krogan females surviving the experiments of the Salarian Maleon. Backed into a corner, the Salarian allows Jane and Wrex to retrieve the females.

John Shepard takes over a Cerberus science outpost on Sanctum, captures a Cerberus fighter base on Noveria and intercepts several Cerberus ship supply convoys. He returns to the Citadel to speak with Aria T’loak at Dock 42. During a causal car ride, Aria makes John an intriguing offer…help retake Omega and Omega will help fight the war. John travels with Aria to Omega captured by Cerberus just prior to the Reaper invasion.

After intense and brutal fighting in close-quarters, street to street and hand to hand, gangs and civilians fighting mechs and trained soldiers, they arrive at Afterlife. Before entering the centre of Aria’s Omega, now the HQ of Cerberus, the pair and Aria’s former lover and leader of the Talons, Nyreen Kandros, find themselves surrounded by reaper forces that had escaped Cerberus control.

Grabbing and priming the grenades of fallen Cerberus troops, Nyreen created a biotic bubble around herself and the reapers, containing the blast but suffering severe wounds in the process. In a total state of rage Aria charged into Afterlife, killing several troops before caught in a special anti-biotic trap. Cerberus General Oleg Petrovsky is forced to surrender after John frees Aria from the trap and kills all of Petrovsky’s troops in the club. Aria allows Petrovsky to live, though only because John’s was able to save Nyreen’s life, her biotics enhancing her shields and minimising her wounds.

Aria and Nyreen assume control and begin to rebuild Omega, sending a good portion of their forces to assist with the Reaper War. While Aria had only dealt with John a few times during the Collector incident, she was impressed by his determination and found it, and him, interesting…and decided to count him as an ally. John then returns to Council space and deals with Cerberus on Benning and rescues many civilians.

Jane is able transfer the Krogan female to the Normandy, where Mordin Solus began to work on the cure to the Genophage. The Turian Primarch and Wrex both give Jane private missions to deal with, each increasing their faith in her, from dealing with the twisted clone of a Rachni queen and helping Grunt on Utukku, to helping disarm an ancient Turian bomb buried under the Tuchankan surface. Mordin was able to synthesise a cure and Jane ready to deploy it, but a Reaper Destroyer guarded the Shroud.

Before starting the mission to the Shroud complex, the Salarians contacted Jane and tried to convince her that the cure was still unwise and a mistake for the galaxy. With the promise of scientists and their fleet, the Salarians told Jane that the Shroud was sabotaged, but could be fixed. The decision was easy for her to make, since the Krogan were part of her plan. On the surface, Jane and her team battled their way to the Shroud and with the help of Mother of all Thresher Maws, destroyed the Reaper and released the cure. Sadly, Dr. Mordin Solus was killed during this event, but his sacrifice was noted by not only the Alliance but also by the Krogan themselves. Now cured of the Genophage, the Krogan were ready to full enter into the war and send many companies to Palaven to help the Turians. While the Turians honoured their promise and sent the Alliance their support.

Both siblings were reporting back to Admiral Hackett about what they had been able to accomplish so far when an emergency message came from the Salarian Councilor. He reported suspicious and potentially illegal activities involving Udina. The Shepards took their ships back to the Citadel to find it under Cerberus attack, with C-Sec officers and agents unable to hold effectively on the Presidium.

John went after the Council while Jane sought out the Salarian Councilor hiding somewhere in the C-Sec complex. However, when Jane found the Councilor they were attacked by a Cerberus assassin by the name of Kai Leng. Thanks to the daring intervention of an STG team, the assassin was forced to flee. Jane relayed what happened to John who was using a captured C-Sec car and flying in the Presidium. Suddenly the assassin reappeared and with a mocking smile disabled the flying car and forced it to crash, but John, Ashley and Garrus survived the crash. On foot they fought more Cerberus troops and Atlas mechs before catching up with the assassin and his squad of Cerberus Phantoms. Thanks to the assistance of Commander Bailey, John and his team was able to reach the Council members before the assassin did. Unfortunately, they faced a new problem.

Kaiden Alenko, recently discharged from the hospital and given the rank of Spectre, was protecting the remaining council members. Kaiden and John soon found themselves in a standoff. John tried to reason with Kaiden, but Kaiden’s dislike of him and being unprepared to listen unless meant he couldn’t care less about what he said. Udina kept whispering and suggesting to Kaiden that John had been turned by Cerberus. John was forced to take action when Udina tried to unseal the elevator doors behind him. John shot Kaiden in the leg and put a double tap twice into Udina’s chest. Ashley kicked Kaiden’s pistol away and kept him covered, while Garrus moved to cover the council members and remained in a defensive stance, rifle at the ready. From behind them the elevator doors were cut open and out came Commander Bailey and several C-Sec officers. Bailey confirmed John’s suspicions about Udina. This in turn made Kaiden look foolish, shamed by his failure, but he hated John making him look like a second-rate protector in front of the Council. Jane and John both convened with the Council about the situation. The Asari and Salarians then sent aid to the Crucible project and the Asari Councilor spoke with John in private about access to a hidden artifact on Thessia. Jane was then told to get help from the Quarians, since they had the largest navy in the galaxy

Both siblings parted company with James Vega and Liara going with John and Ashley, while Garrus and Jane took Kaiden with them along with several Spec-Ops troopers.

Taking the Kursk to Thessia, John and his team found the planet under heavy Reaper attack. John quickly deployed a small team to the surface and tried to assist the Asari forces, while making his way to the temple of Athame. However, once they reached the temple they didn’t find a simple Prothean artifact, but a Prothean beacon. Furthermore, they were not alone. Kai Leng appeared with a Cerberus gunship in support, while the Illusive man appeared via hologram, trying to explain his actions up to this point. John was not interested in his strategy. After a brief scuffle and losing to Kai Leng, John was forced to watch as Reapers reinforcements landed on the surface, radio chatter from the Asari defenders coming in panicked as they were overrun. Enraged, John was forced to evacuate from Thessia, the Kursk suffering damage from a squadron of Reaper fighters before limping back to the Citadel.

Meanwhile, Jane met with the Quarian Admiralty and learned that they went to war with the Geth, again. But the geth had joined with the Reapers and were under their control, using a signal beacon aboard a geth dreadnought. Tali joins Jane’s team and takes the Normandy to the battle raging over Rannoch, discovering the massive Geth dreadnought destroying the Quarian fleet. Sneaking onto the dreadnought, Jane, Garrus and Tali were surprised to find that Legion was at the center of a device that relaying a control signal to the geth. In freeing Legion, the group exposed the dreadnought to the Quarian fleet, forcing them to commandeer a geth fighter in order to escape. Jane moves on to dealing with two major issues between the geth and the Quarians: rescuing Admiral Koris on the surface of Rannoch; and helping Legion save geth from a server on the planet’s surface. It was as her consciousness was exposed to the geth’s neural net that she was able to see some of the history behind the Morning War between the Quarians and the Geth.  
At last, the Reaper base was exposed, and Shepard made her move to attack with a small strike team. Fighting their way through the base, they finally reach a high point and using the laser guidance weapon, allowed the Normandy to perform an air strike. This did, however, draw out a Reaper destroyer hiding within the base, and the strike team quickly found themselves in its sights. Rather than allowing it to escape or attack others, Shepard utilised the LGW to direct orbital fire from the Quarian fleet onto the Reaper. After several salvos of high-energy kinetic ammunition, the Reaper was crippled, surviving just long enough to mock Shepard before she another salvo finished it off.

With the Reaper defeated, Legion began to upload his augmented code to the rest of the Geth. While Tali was not happy with this, she did not stop him, however the Quarian fleet didn’t think along the same lines. It was only after intervention by Shepard, Tali and Admiral Koris did the Quarian fleet cease attacking the disabled Geth forces in orbit. Unable to finish uploading the code, Legion was forced to sacrifice itself to give the Geth full AI status. In moments, several geth troops and one Prime approached Shepard, Tali and the battered Admiral Rann, expressing interest in the Quarians return to Rannoch and live with the Geth.

With this conflict resolved, Jane returned to the Citadel to find her brother in a rage over his failure at Thessia. Together they researched Cerberus movements, Traynor providing them with information from intercepted Cerberus communications as well as Miranda Lawson, and thus able to plot where Kai Leng had gone after Thessia: Horizon. With both of their ships they set course for the planet, though Ashley told John that she never saw a Cerberus base or anything odd on Horizon when she was there.

While the ships remained in orbit a pair of shuttles transferred two teams to the surface, landing at the locale known as Sanctuary. Here they discovered Reaper forces in the process of attacking Cerberus, their shuttles attempting to flee for space. Moving into the facility revealed further evidence of heavy fighting, but no sign of any refugees. As the teams separated and explored the complex, John’s team discovered laboratories with both Reaper and Collector tech incorporated into them and disturbing signs of human experimentation. Jane’s team on the other hand fought more Reaper forces as they made their way to the communications tower. Reaching the top of the tower, Jane and her team found Henry Lawson holding a pistol on his daughter, Oriana and Miranda tucked into cover. Offering to let him to walk away with his life, Henry Lawson was put off guard, Miranda using her impressive biotic powers to hurl her father and creator through a window to his death. Both sisters were taken back to the Normandy for medical care, Jane assigning a marine squad to secure the complex with instructions not to destroy any of the research or equipment. John argued that the experiments were wrong and twisted, but Jane pointed out the information and knowledge that could be found in all the notes. Unfortunately, Kai Leng had escaped with the data from the complex that Lawson had uncovered about the Reapers and their ability to control their forces. Thanks to the quick thinking of Samantha Traynor, a tracer tagged Leng’s shuttle before it escaped into FTL.

With confirmation from several sources, the primary HQ of Cerberus was finally discovered and the Shepards met with Admiral Hackett. The Crucible was completed save for the information stolen from Thessia. Hackett explained to the siblings that once they launch the attack on Cerberus HQ they would be throwing everything into the retaking of Earth. Both the Normandy and Kursk were given a final repairs and rearming before they both made for their launch points. The Kursk would go with elements of the 5th fleet that would attack the Cerberus force protecting the station, while the Normandy would send in a strike team to capture the Prothean data and if possible capture or remove the Illusive Man.

Cerberus was not fully ready for the sudden appearance of elements of the 5th fleet suddenly dropping out of FTL near Cronos Station. Cerberus frigates were easy prey in the opening attacks and cruisers were damaged. Overcoming their original surprise, Cerberus forces managed to destroy two cruisers and mortally damage the Kursk, forcing John and his teams to abandon ship. While most of the escape pods headed for the fleet, several made for the station. John, Ashley and Miranda along with several Marines landed in the lower sections that contained labs and containment areas. Like on Horizon, there existed signs of Reaper tech usage, some of it even fused with the station walls and decks. Bodies of what had to have been station personal were scattered and some were partly ‘repurposed’ into husks. As they explored they heard a scream of rage and pain from a large holding cell, Cerberus trooper bodies torn apart and strewn before the doors bent like tissue paper.

Opening the door, the trio looked inside with their combat flashlights to discover a former ally, now a biological nightmare of several species, built upon the strong frame of a Reaper Brute but with the six bio-mechanical legs of a Ravager and the claws of a Brute’s arms. Mounted on both mutated shoulders were a pair of Ravager cannons, but it was the face that glared at them that made Miranda almost cry.

Former Cerberus Operative Jacob Taylor had been captured by his former employer, experimented upon and used as a special project to improve Cerberus combat capabilities. The actual result was a monstrosity that left him little more than a husk. His face had been torn open on the left side, exposing modifications like those of a husk, cables and wires covered and flowed out the base of his skull and neck. Only his head and torso were visible to a certain degree, his arms and legs either gone or buried deep inside it. The creature screamed at the group and opened fire with its shoulder cannons, but only managed to kill a few marines. Miranda tried to reach what was left of Jacob, but Shepard knew he was gone. There was no soul in the human eye, just circuitry and leaking fluids. Explaining this to Miranda, the trio and the surviving marines opened fire on the creature, heavily armoured and sporting biotic barriers. After ten minutes, the Jacob-Brute was on the ground, various fluids escaping from wounds as pieces of flesh and armour littered the ground around it. Shepard walked up to the creature and unloaded his M-6 Carnifex pistol into the head until the thermal clip glowing brightly and sizzled at max capacity, John ejecting the clip as he watched the lights of the Reaper tech finally die. After ordering a marine to cremate the body with a flamethrower, they carried on toward the top of the station.

Fighting her way up from the fighter hanger bay her shuttle had crashed into, Jane and her squad advanced through and then up the station to the main office of the Illusive Man. As expected it was empty, save for the lone chair in the room and a beautiful view of the star and fleet outside the station. Dropping into the chair, Shepard and EDI began to access the files, the Illusive Man appearing in holo-form behind them. Despite his efforts Shepard blew as she looked for the Prothean VI. While the Prothean VI spoke with Shepard about the missing part of the Crucible, indicating it to be the Citadel station itself, Kai Leng moved silently into the room. Thanks to the Illusive Man, the Citadel had been captured by the Reapers and moved to Earth. Mocking Shepard for failing to stop him, the Illusive Man instructed Kai to stop Shepard. Kai Leng and a mixed unit of phantoms and troopers attacked the team in a futile effort, suffering defeat in mere moments. Bleeding and dying slowly, Kai Leng crawled at first before rising and stumbling towards Shepard, now back in the Illusive Man’s chair. Raising his sword, he moved to slash down at Shepard, but Shepard sensed the attack and whirled around, killing Leng with an omni-blade into this upper torso.

Jane’s and John’s team were recovered by the Normandy and with that the 5th fleet disengaged and made for the final rendezvous point before heading to Earth. Once they arrived, Admiral Hackett boarded the Normandy and gave a speech to all the fleets before speaking with the siblings in private with Admiral Anderson on Vid-Com. Anderson explained the situation on Earth, explaining how the Citadel was in stationary orbit over the city of London. With last minute instructions and orders, Hackett returned to his command ship and the fleet was ready.

Normandy joined with Sword fleet and made for the nearest mass relay. The arrival through the Charon relay was staggered, led by the Normandy and followed by dozens and then hundreds of ships from all species. Turian cruisers and dreadnoughts, Geth cruisers and frigates, Quarian frigates and support ships, Asari cruisers and the Destiny Ascension, with humanity bringing every warship they had left. Assuming a spread-out line formation the ships unleashed upon Jane’s command a massive salvo of missiles, MAC rounds and Thanix weapons. Having softened their targets with the opening shots, fighters on both sides moved in. Capital class Reapers attacked with Destroyers, attempting to get in close enough to render their main weapons ineffective moving in among the massive fleet and tried to dismantle ships in close combat.

With the enemy distracted, the Normandy made its way into the atmosphere and released both of its shuttles and all members of the ground team. Alliance shuttles and dropships followed them with the cargo of troops, supplies and armour. A-61 Mantis gunships were dropped into the upper atmosphere by specialized transports to provide top cover to the shuttles from Harvesters and ground forces. Even so, many shuttles and dropships didn’t make it to the surface, their passengers perishing in fiery deaths before getting to face the enemy. John’s team disembarked and moved to eliminate a Hades- class cannon destroying shuttles and low flying support frigates. Jane’s squad moved through the ruins of London and made for the FOB, while John destroyed the cannon and rendezvoused with Major Coats before being taken to the FOB.

Both groups gathered for what they all expected to be the last time, both Shepards providing small talk before final orders were given. Jane took Garrus and Kaiden while John took Ashley and James, the rest broke up in different groups and provided support wherever they were needed.

The siblings and their squad members moved from building to building, street to street in constant combat from Reaper forces. Cannibals and Marauders were appearing all the time, while Brutes and Ravagers would drop out of the sky and unleash hell on the attackers. Thankfully Banshees were few and far between during this battle, but several Harvesters made up for it with random attacks from the sky and the deployment of more troops. Once both groups linked up in a bombed-out apartment, they learned that a group of Thanix missile launcher trucks were under attack. Reaching the site took a long time as Cannibals and Husks were unrelenting in their charges and firing of their arm cannons.

Upon finally reaching the trucks they discovered all the soldiers assigned to them killed in brutal fashion. Jane ordered EDI to link with the trucks, so they could fire the missiles at the Reaper Destroyer guarding their destination. Behind the Reaper stood a bright column of light reaching up to the Citadel in orbit. According to Anderson the beam was a direct link to the Citadel, and as the only way to activate the Crucible was to open the station’s arms, they had to get to it. Just as EDI started her linking with the missile trucks, waves upon waves of Reapers forces came raining down from the sky or crawling out of buildings and sewers. The six-man team moved and covered each other with overlapping fields of fire until finally EDI announced she was ready and the missile had locked onto the Destroyer now walking towards them. Firing the missile, the group watched it soar away and then veer off course and into the ground.  
EDI theorised that interference from the beam was scrambling the missile’s guidance and suggested allowing the Destroyer to close the gap. Following her advice, the group moved to the last surviving missile truck and bunkered down for several more waves of Reapers. With the destroyer upon them, EDI fired the missile. No longer affected by jamming trucks in surrounding areas launched their payloads, the ripple fire ensuring a higher probability of at least one hit. Luck was on their side, a single missile able to bypass the shielding of the primed firing chamber and destroy it.

Rearming from the dead around them, the Shepard siblings were found by Anderson and more marines in APCs. The final push had begun as the group moved forward and charged at the beam transportation site, with yelling marines firing their weapons at the horde of Cannibals, Husks and Marauders. Gunships and fighters flew in and fired but then they were suddenly blown out of the sky, but the largest Reaper known to the siblings: Harbinger had arrived. Firing its beam weapons at the charging Alliance teams and decimated them in droves, APCs melted and men simply disappeared from existence. Ashley and Kaiden were wounded and James nearly lost both his legs to a near miss from a beam. John called in the Normandy for an emergency pickup, while he and Jane tried to rally the men around them. Garrus had to drag Ashley on to the ramp of the Normandy for she was fighting to stay with John. But Kaiden obeyed Jane without question and James helped him on to the ship.

To the surprise of both John and Jane, Harbinger didn’t fire at the Normandy, despite being such an easy target. It simply ceased firing and stood where it had landed behind the beam site, surveying the scene with its array of glowing eyes and focusing on the only people still alive in the area. John noticed Harbinger’s had wiped out Reaper forces as well, effectively clearing their path. With only a simple look at each other, John and Jane walked together to the beam of light and….

Data filed interrupted…All material on the time aboard the Citadel/Crucible is rated Black Omega Clearance. File can only be accessed by those with proper clearance of the Empress of the Systems Alliance. Accessing this section of the file will result in an automatic death sentence and declared traitors of the Alliance. Date file resumes…

With the energy of the Crucible, a purple shockwave of energy of both red and bluish crackling lighting was sent out from the combined Crucible/Citadel. Alliance ships and allies made for FTL to escape the blast wave, but the Reapers were for some reason puzzled and unable to process the meaning of the shockwave. Many of the Capital and Destroyer class Reapers were destroyed by the energy shockwave but several remained intact and stopped attacking any forces in the area. On Earth, Reaper forces and the Alliance with its allies were fighting to the death in both long-range battles and hand-to-hand fighting, when the shockwave smashed into the Earth. Again, most of the Reapers were destroyed but a handful of random Capital and Destroyer classes simply stopped firing and disengaged from combat. Husks, Cannibals and the rest of the minions of the Reapers simple disintegrated or just died where they stood.

The Crucible then fired a concentrated beam of its energy at the Charon relay, distributing it other relays in the network, each relay unleashing a shockwave into its system. Similar results all over the galaxy with those Reapers surviving leave the battlefields and the systems they were in, all seemed to be heading for an unknown location. Only one Reaper seemed unaffected by the energy wave, it was on Earth and it glared at four beings that had appeared on the ground at the base of where the beam of light was. Four human beings and all were still alive, but all were badly wounded…

To be continued…


	4. Imperial Systems Alliance

Greetings Imperial Citizen…  
  
You have accessed the Imperial Systems Alliance Database Archives  
  
You have been authorized to review the material below by the Ministry of Intelligence and the Ministry of Public and Foreign Relations  
  
 **2186**  
  
• The Reaper War ends with the defeat of the Reapers thanks to the great Commander Jane Shepard and the warriors of humanity  
• Commander Jane Shepard is promoted to Vice Admiral  
• Vice Admiral Shepard restarts the (Classified) Shipyards and orders full mass production on several designs  
• Vice Admiral Shepard has the Reapers under her control and has them begin to rebuild the worlds they have devastated of all races  
• London and its city limits have been quarantined under the order of Vice Admiral Shepard, a cloaking field is installed and is declared no fly zone  
• Commander John Shepard is declared MIA/KIA  
• Temporary Parliament is established to help bring order back to the Alliance, while Admiral Hackett reorganizes what is left of the Alliance military  
• Illusive Man moved to an undisclosed location with heavy guard  
• Admiral Anderson remains in a coma  
  
  
 **2187**  
  
• Citadel is returned to the Serpent Nebula after it was repaired  
• Outer defensive wall and weapon emplacements are constructed at London location  
• Memorial monument is constructed on the Citadel for the Fallen of the Reaper War  
• N7 Corps is founded  
• Reapers continue with repairing and rebuilding across the galaxy  
  
  
 **2188**  
  
• Cerberus forces have been reintegrated in to Alliance military  
• MechaCore Industries present plans for overhauling and redesigning all military mechs to the Alliance Command  
• Construction on the Nexus space station begins at (Classified location)  
• Citadel Council welcomes two new races into the council, the Krogan and the Quarians  
• Secondary defense wall and weapon emplacements are finished  
• Vakarian class heavy combat frigates are launched from (Classified) shipyards and enter into service  
• Admiral Anderson awakens from his coma  
• Admiral Steven Hackett retires from the Alliance military  
  
 **2189**  
  
• Final stage of construction of the Imperial palace is completed  
• Vice Admiral Shepard is made Supreme Commander of all Alliance military forces, following Admiral Hackett’s retirement  
• The Arcturus heavy fleet command dreadnought is launched from (Classified) Shipyard  
• The Hades class N7 Planetary Assault Carrier, along with three sister ships is launched from (Classified) Shipyard  
• Alliance Parliament offers the Batarian Hegemony space in both the Verge and Traverse and assistance in rebuilding their civilization.  
• Admiral Anderson is made the ambassador to the Turian Hierarchy, this was made at the request of the Primarch himself  
• MechaCore Industries releases its newly updated military mechs to the Alliance military  
• Alliance citizens greatly disapprove of the Parliament’s new peaceful ways with the Batarians and their easy forgiveness stance on the past. Protests and demonstrations occur throughout the Alliance.  
• Alliance Parliament demands to know what is going on at the London construction site, Vice Admiral Shepard reply is: The future  
  
 **2190**  
  
• Alliance Parliament makes plans to remove Vice Admiral Shepard and her cabal of advisors  
• Operation Lazarus Storm is executed  
• All Alliance Communications are jammed or offline  
• All Alliance military bases and forces go on full alert  
• On the orders of Vice Admiral Shepard, the Alliance Parliament is arrested  
• Vice Admiral Shepard gives a public speech addressing the actions taken against Parliament and declares herself Empress of the new Imperial Systems Alliance  
• Cloaking field around the area of London is deactivated, the Imperial Palace is revealed to the Alliance  
• Alliance citizens are very pleased with the change in government and there is very little unrest over the matter  
• Krogan Empire sends a gift of 100 Krogan warriors to help serve as palace guards, Empress Shepard accepts the gift  
• New Ministries are formed to replace the old system and ministers are selected by the Empress  
• N7 Corps is fully combat ready for deployment  
• Military is restructured by the newly appointed Minister of War: High Marshal Oleg Petrovsky  
• Avenger class dreadnoughts and Orion class cruisers are launched from (Classified) shipyards  
• Most Reapers are sent to the edge of the galaxy and enter into standby mode  
  
 **2191**  
  
• Reforms in the new Imperial Systems Alliance continues, including the status of biotic gifted people to be declared normal citizens of the ISA  
• ISA Naval fleets are reformed with the new ships and retiring the older models  
• The Quarian/Geth Confederation decides to close its borders so they can focus on fully rebuilding and recolonizing their lost empire  
• The Sovereign Protectors are formed as the personal bodyguards to the Empress, under the command of Executor Jack (formerly Subject Zero)  
• Citadel Council is slightly concerned about the changes to the new Alliance Government, but are assured by the new Minister of Public/Foreign relations, Kelly Chambers that no action is being taken against any of the Council races  
• Turian government orders increase of surveillance patrols near ISA space regions  
• Asari and Salarian governments maintain a passive stance to the changes  
• Batarian assassins are captured attempting to gain entry onto the Imperial Palace grounds  
• The ISA declares war on the Batarian Hegemony and launches a three-prong attack into Batarian space  
  
  
 **2192**  
  
• Batarian government denies any assassin plan against Empress Shepard, even after the confessions of the captured assassins are released to the public and to the Council  
• 1st and 3rd fleet with the support of the N7 Corps secure the border colonies in the Traverse and the Verge with minimal losses to Imperial forces  
• Admiral Balak takes full command of all Batarian military forces with the backing of his government  
• 8th fleet forces are badly mauled after encountering Admiral Balak’s counter-attack using 10 dreadnoughts as a spearhead along with several squadrons of cruisers and frigates  
• With support from the N7 Corps ships, the 8th fleet is able to force back Admiral Balak’s offensive with the destruction of several of his dreadnoughts, forcing him to disengage operations.  
• Commodore Josh Walker is promoted to Rear Admiral for his counter-attack and for rallying the fleet after the destruction of its flagship and many key personnel  
• The Citadel Council requests that the war with the Batarians come to end, the Empress refuses on the grounds that it was the Batarians and not the ISA that started the war. The Council tries to condemn the war with the Batarians, but is unable to come to an agreement on what should be done about it.  
  
 **2193**  
  
• Admiral Balak continues holding operations but informs the Batarian government that they are facing a more advanced foe than was expected and that plans should be made to evacuate colonies and outposts to safety. His ‘recommendation’ was seen as fatalistic and ignored  
• Rear Admiral Walker and the newly created 2nd fleet (The 2nd fleet had been destroyed during the Reaper war, while providing cover for several other fleets to escape the onslaught in the open days of the war) are assigned to work with the N7 Corps  
• Admiral Balak then begins using tactics that are unconventional and unethical to some.  
• Nuclear minefields destroy a large portion of the 7ths fleet when it was going through an asteroid belt. The Batarians attacked moments later and destroyed the 7th fleet and its Army transports, there were no survivors.  
• Lieutenant General Ashley Williams and her N7 Corps come up with a plan to help shorten the war  
• Operation Scythe is approved by the Minister of War and all of its elements are moved into place over the course of several weeks  
• With the support of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th fleets, the N7 Corps bypasses all major Batarian systems and relays directly in the Batarian home system of Harsa  
• The 3rd and 4th fleets blockade the system, while the 1st and 2nd fleets move inward to the Batarian home world of Khar’shan with the N7 Corps’s flagship Arcturus leading the charge.  
• Admiral Balak is unable to disengage from combat with the 5th fleet that was sent to tie him up from returning to the home world. The Batarian government gives the special order for all civilians to evacuate the home world by any means possible.  
• Most military vessels being used for the evacuation are destroyed while heading for the mass relay, helpless freighters were also hunted down while in route as well.  
• The Batarian government orders Admiral Balak to get their people safety, he recovers all that can be saved and leads a convoy of refugees, including those that had fled earlier in the war into the Terminus Systems  
• The Batarian government is captured by the N7 Corps and is publicly executed for their plans to kill the Empress  
• Khar’shan is renamed Aurelius Prime and is designated as the capital world for the new Colonial region of the ISA.  
  
  
 **2194**

  
• The Nexus space station and the massive colony ark, Hyperion are deployed to Aurelius Prime for colonization  
• Former N7 officer now ISA scientist Alec Ryder decries the actions of the ISA and makes false claims of war crimes committed by the N7 Corps in the name of the Empress.  
• The Minister of Intelligence, Miranda Lawson orders his execution by a squad of Imperial Phantoms but the attempt fails and Ryder is able to escape on board the scout ship, Tempest.  
• Alec Ryder is declared an enemy of the state, along with members of his family and those that supported him.  
• Pirate Queen Aria T’loak learns that Batarian ships are attacking several worlds that of interest to her in eastern region of the Terminus systems. Displeased with this she sends elements of her pirate fleet to deal with the issue.  
• Imperial Overseer Forster Addison begins overseeing the colonization of the former Batarian worlds and outposts.  
• Alec Ryder gains some support from ‘older’ members of the ISA military and they break away to add him in his ‘rebellion’  
• Several ship depots housing older Berlin and London class cruisers and other ships are raided, investigation points to Ryder’s rebels  
  
 **2195**  
  
• Imperial Spectres, covert intelligence officers with Imperial authority are created to handle internal security, they are under the control of the Minister of Intelligence. Col. James Vega is head of the Imperial Spectres.  
• Several outer colonies and outposts start to show signs of political unrest, Imperial Spectres are dispatched to investigate  
• N7 Corps returns to Benning and wait new deployment orders from the Minister of War  
• 2nd fleet now stationed at Benning as part of supporting the N7 Corps  
• Krogan Empire and Salarian Union have several border skirmishes over Krogan Empire expansion  
• Citadel Council negotiate between the two species on areas for the Krogan to expand without threatening Salarian Union space or influence  
  
 **2196**  
  
• Alec Ryder makes a public declaration to stopping the criminal and brutal ways of the ISA and to return it to the days of the old Systems Alliance  
• Begins raids on ISA trading lanes and hit and run attacks on military bases in the outer colony regions of the ISA  
• Several colonies openly declare support of Alec Ryder, including the Ursa system  
• 6th fleet engaged by Ryder’s rebel fleet and is victorious by forcing 6th fleet to withdraw  
• Minister of War issues new orders to the N7 Corps…Deal with the rebels


End file.
